Kai, The Informologist

I miss church today.

I think the Teriyakis are my favorite here in Seattle. I mean, they are cheap, tasty and always filling. There must be half a dozen of them on the Ave alone, favorites include Best of Bento (B.O.B), University Teriyaki, Kiku (always order the one with bone, you will be a happier diner).

Was going to play basketball with some buddies but was successfully tempted to spend some quality time on Lake Washington. It was a really nice day out. With the heat coming back on, I can no longer use the jackets to disguise my chubbies – although it seem that only I think those disguises had worked, others doesn’t really see a difference. Oh my.

Heading back in a matter of days.

Haha, I thought of the title because today’s agenda reminded me of one specific episode of Spongebob Squarepants where he had the entire day planned out to do things he like with people he love. Same here!

Finally had the chance to watch ‘Iron Man’ to complete the mini Marvel series. Now I really want to see how he is going to team up with the green guy. All in all, we went in around 12pm and came out around 6pm – had a Johnny Rocket burger in between (excellent burger I must say). 6 hours of literally non-stop movies. Wohoo!

Joined Andrew at Greenlake with a few other friends from his church, it was quite nice to just sit and chill and throw Frisbee around.

Good day!

Spent the day assembling the slideshow for tonight’s fellowship. I liked the final product.

Of meeting up to hang out, have dinner before GC.

It’s Germany vs. Turkey with 20 minutes of international feed disruption, resulting in us not seeing the 2 goals that saw the duo level after 86 minutes. Incredible. And it was almost another day of Turkish Delight, if not for the other gear that Germany seems to be able to go to that gifted them the goal from Lahm. Very much demonstrating the difference amongst them, even though Turkey deserves full credit for their determination that saw them this far.

But that wasn’t the highlight of the day. The highlight of the day HAS to be the 5 burgers and 4 curly fries that Yogi and I got at Arby’s. Incredible – all thanks to their ‘Pick 5′ menu. More incredible – Yogi finished his 3 burgers and 2 fries. @.@

Had a tough decision to make about heading out for dinner or Jazz. Decision decisions. Sigh.

Andrew is officially on staff with the City Church as their graphic designer. I’m really proud of him and I can really see how God has blessed him and stayed faithful to him.

Cleaned up by lens and got a filter thanks to Andrew.

Basketball continues on – 3rd day straight.

Prayer: God will continue to teach us and bring us together even on days when we find it hard. We will be able to do things that we know is right.

It’s my first movie in months!

I had grown to a believe that movie isn’t much of an entertainment. In a sense, I just treat them all as rentals since they will all eventually be one. But that seems to take out the entertainment value out of it.

The movie was good primarily because I really like Edward Northon and Liv Tyler. The core of the movie seems to address love and greed. Green guy has love, not greedy; the ugly bad guy doesn’t really have love, full of greed. And they clash.

Played basketball at the church today, it was pretty fun.

The end of the Summer Camp. It had been a wonderful 3d2n, we had lots of fun, learned a lot, prayed a lot, worshiped a lot, people were saved, and people were renewed. It was amazing how our God is so awesome.

It’s wonderful that the co-workers not only invited guest to speak into us, activity to teach us fellowship, but also prepared morning devotions to help building up our relationship with God.

And today’s morning devotion talked about God’s love. It was written in Chinese and here’s the attempted translation. They are both in PDF, and feel free to correct/comment on the English version. The title of the devotion is 愛的贖价 (Price of Love) – it basically used an illustration to show what God did to redeem for our sins. You should definitely try to read it! [English | Chinese]

The speaker today is Joy, she’s a servant of God from one of Vancouver’s Chinese Broadcast Station. The title of the message is “光明之子，健康痲吉”. It’s about having healthy relationship with one another. Comparing darkness and light. Imagine someone who lives next to a dumpster all their life. They are exposed to the smell constantly. And one day he was brought to somewhere with fresh air. He would not want to go back to the house next to the dumpster because he had tasted something better. And that’s similar to our exposure to God. If you have genuinely tasted the goodness of God, it would be impossible to shy yourself away.

Another point that she shared that I felt really useful – You can never make friends, only receive friends from God! You don’t have to make changes to your physics or personality to become someone’s friend. That to me is just amazing in what God can really do for us.

If you feel you are lacking in some areas of life, pray that God will provide and watch Him work! Believe and have faith, and don’t bet your life on instant gratification.

青春有限，讓愛走動 was the title of the very first message. It talked about love. Not just love in a romantic manner, but love in general.

Elder Peter Su was the speaker and he shared with us the book ‘Four Loves‘ by C.S Lewis. In the book, it talked about 親情 (Family Love), 友誼 (Friendship Love), 愛情 (Love Love), 聖情 (Heavenly Love). And the focal point of the discussion is that none of the the three Love can be completed without the last Love, that’s Heavenly Love – Love from God. This really prompt me into wanting to read the book.

It was mind-opening when Elder Su shared how we can look at 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in another way. Instead of using ‘Love’, substitute it with ‘Jesus’. So it becomes:

“4 Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. Jesus does not demand its own way. Jesus is not irritable, and Jesus keeps no record of being wronged. 6 Jesus does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Jesus never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

Cool. Now copy+paste that quote into word document. Press CTRL+F, choose the ‘Replace’ tab. In the first box, type in ‘Jesus’. And in the second box type in your own name. Click ‘Replace All’.

It was really difficult for me to read, even beyond the first sentence. Elder Su hopes to use this example to show us how God wants us to love and how we can improve. It was amazing how far away I stand from where God wants me to be. I am sorry Yopi that I was not more thoughtful and may have sounded rude.

Lastly he showed us this video. It’s a choir formed by native Taiwanese tribes orphans who were either abandon or were left without a parent. This performance was in Seattle a few years ago. Here’s the video and here’s the lyrics:

雖不見祢，觸不到祢，
但是我知，祢正在對我低語。
哦！主耶穌，哦！主耶穌，
我深知道祢一直就在這裏。

是祢的手，釘痕的手，
重新撫慰我那破碎的心田。
是祢聲音，溫柔話語，
再度填滿我心靈中的飢渴。

May God make His words move.

I will be away till Sunday for CGCG’s Summer Camp and I think it would be awesome!

Please continue praying for my job hunt and that the summer camp will be fruitful for all who went!

P/S: I really need to learn how to always see the best in people, including Cristiano Ronaldo.

The game did not end in 90.

An ecstatic 5 minutes leading up to the penalty. And a cruel 6 shots that sees Croatia out of the tournement.

It was amazing amazing amazing how Turkey came back. Just amazing.

Croatia 1 – 1 Turkey regular time plus extra time.
Then 1 out of 4 for the Croatia, 3 out of 3 for Turkey in penalty.

It was sad for the Croatians, how do you feel when you scored the only goal in 119 minutes. And how do you feel when that’s been equalized in less than 5 minutes. Lastly, how do you feel when your top players missed three out of four shots at an all important penalty shoot-out. Man it’s hard to take.

On other news, it continue to disgust me how a man of my age, Cristiano Ronaldo has so little integrity. It must be hard for Sir Alex to adjust to the new era of football where million dollars worth of contracts could be bought out and meant nothing. I mean, how much could you asked for at $250,000 per week?

I’m not cursing Ronaldo, he is a good player, and he may very well be able to adjust to the Spanish game better than his precedence David Beckham, Ruud van Nisterlooy and Thiery Henry. But I truly believe Manchester United is the place where he can be nurtured and developed.

(via Heart Of Flesh)

It was senior preaching night at Generation Church, and it was awesome.

Yudika, Andrew and Jono preached and shared. They are all graduates from University of Washington, blessed, obedience disciples of God. I hope they will post the Podcast so that you guys can experience those wonderful powerful messages! In the meantime, I will try to reassemble their messages a little.

It’s Yudika | Andrew | and Jono!

God is faithful. Pray and hold on! God said in Jeremiah 29 – I have a plan for you.
Hold on to that promise and believe!

I will and you should too!

Go S’mores!

Meals are often tastier when you have wonderful companies. I did today.

Words of God replenish life and refreshes mind. We are not only at a stage where transitions starts to rock, we are also at an age where we are learning to better control our emotions. This was my morning’s devotion sent to me from New Living Translation – hopefully the words will work in you.

It was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. Isaiah 53:4
Do you ever feel like no one understands the pain you’re feeling? Thankfully, we have a God who endured suffering on our behalf; he knows what our pain is like. And he sends his Spirit to comfort us when the night is dark.

The day began slowly with clouds again blanketing itself over Seattle with drizzles every now and then. Lazed around all morning in front of TV and laptop, I had to get out of the house to be somewhat productive. By 5p.m. two resumes were sent and blog updated. Horray! Plus, I get to play “Solitaire Showdown” with that important someone – victory was mine today.

Two sports event happened today. In Euro 2008, Italy strike lucky as France played a rather faintly game especially following Franck Ribery’s injury and Abidal’s dismissal. Without that and with the lack of the finishing touch from striker Luca Toni, the Azzurri would not have made it through. Personally, I think Thiery Henry should retire from national football to focus himself with better performance in club games.

The disappointing Lakers played a lackluster 6th game against the braving Celtics, whom in turn won their 17th NBA Trophy in its 42 years of history, largely crediting the 3 musketeers that crusaded and fought for one another throughout the season, whom all merits not only a name but a mark in the history of the game. Now, with the latest trophy in the back, they are having a 40% title-winning rate, that’s easily the best historical team and can be deservingly declared a dynasty.

We seem to be in a rather depressing, confused, down time in our society, it seems as though everything are degrading exponentially. Nonetheless, whatever trouble life brings, you still have the same God who loves you and cares for you. So I say, be strengthen, for God is good – He gave me so much today that I didn’t have in the morning!

A new Toshiba Sateliite for Mark. And everything should be in order.
I believe my tech support experiences made working with the basic functions of computing almost a second nature, it felt good that I can at least do something practical.

Just as a friend told me to quit being sick, I fell sick again. Well, not dead serious, but it’s still bothersome.

Job hunt is in week #2 and absolutely no phone call the entire day. I’m starting to feel a little anxious, but a prayer from a friend always helps. Thank you.

I believe that’s all for the Shoreline Class of Spring 2004.
Congratulations Nobel.

Congratulations also to Turkey, coming back from 2-0 down to boot out Czech Republic from Euro 2008. I miss Pavel Nedved.

The skies are finally clearing up. I’m glad to take it.

Our UW commencement appointment was at 2pm, so I wasn’t really in any hurry to get myself ready – Spain beat Sweden and Greece is oust as the reigning champion from the Russian’s solo strike.

It was a understandably long commencement with all the schools and degrees combined – 4 hours plus extra time in total. And whereas the IU commencement was formal with scripts typed and all, graduating class of UW 2008 flooded to the tented booths at the back of the seating arrangement in the middle of the ceremony. Amazing.

Weekend of graduations. Congratulations.

Excellent Mexican food to fill our stomach for the evening’s Information School Graduation.

Great place to hold a commencement, cushioned theater seats are always welcomed. The speech was more suited for a social-work commencement, but nonetheless it ended. Applause applause. iSchool stands for Information School binding Informatics degree and Master of Science in Information Management as well as other masters and doctorate degrees. Amazingly, there’s only 35 graduating bachelors, there’s at least 4 times that of masters.

According to my friend, 8 out of the 35 bachelors has a job with Microsoft, lowest amongst them $69k. That is crazy.

Oh, how I wish. Still having faith!

That’s the closest thing I can think of yesterday’s service at Generation Church and it will probably be left that way until something more creative comes up.

We were asked to text message to a certain number (that was then forwarded to Pastor Judah’s cell) with a question following the keyword ‘MVMNT’. It was quite overwhelming I’d say and there were some really good questions posted. I hope to share some of it here – most of them are paraphrased and I’ll elaborate some of them further.

1. To the graduates: being smarter does not equal to being more matured. Continue staying in God’s words.
2. From James 1:22-23 – Don’t just be the hearer of the words, but also do-ers of the word.
3. About our relationship with God – diligently seek him.
4. When sharing with an atheist or friends from other religion, your goal is not to win the argument, but to win them.
5. If you feel you have something you had like to see your parents change remember to honor them first before preaching/sharing to them.
6. Sin really complicates things.
7. Finding the balance in life – obedience is the balance of life
8. Condemnation is from the enemy and never from God – Romans 9:1
9. If you feel condemned, confessed and still repeats that cycle:
   - discern that you have sinned,
   - fill that area up (the time, the place, the people)
10. Confess and believe God’s words. Devil tricks us into thinking that God’s words don’t work (even if its sometimes)
11. Christian’s life is a fight and never a cruise.
12. If you see weakness in one area of your life, take a scripture and memorize it – for it will give you power and strength when needed. And strengthen that area.
13. We need to renew our mind daily. Romans 12 talks about renewal. And Paul also said that we have to deny ourselves daily and carry the cross and follow Jesus.
14. We have been fed with the world’s message through media, we need to feast on God’s words to refresh that and to think more like God and not the world.
15. Believe the best of people and don’t jump to conclusion about them. – This is a big one. This is why gossips comes up.
16. Meditate often – keeping reminding yourself and telling yourself about God’s goodness.
17. In regard to relationship: if you can only relate to one another in a romantic way, then you will never learn how to relate to one another in other ways.
18. Don’t stretch out the span of your relationship – it might just be hugs at first, then kiss on the cheek, then on the lips…
19. Reconsider when thinking of marrying a woman who just want to do something with life (like starting a career) after getting married.
20. Fear of God = awareness of God’s presence. Always practice to be in His presence.

Lots of opportunity came through today, still have to see how they turns out.

Euro 2008 Today: I can’t believe Germany’s defeat or Austria’s penalty lifeline. Croatia’s through, Germany has to join the dog fight for the runner-up spot against Austria and Poland. Whoever among the three wins the next game will be through.